Behind the Gates
Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America
Published on 1. March 2004
288 pages
978-1-135-94530-5 (ISBN)
Description
In the last twenty years, thousands upon thousands of the upper and middle classes have retreated into gated communities. In 2002 it is estimated that one in eight Americans will live in these exclusive neighborhoods. What has sparked this alarming trend?
Behind the Gates is Low's revealing account of what life is like inside these suburban fortresses. After years researching and interviewing families in Long Island, New York and San Antonio, Texas, Low provides an inside view of gated communities to help explain why people flee to these enclaves. Parents with children, young married couples, "empty-nesters," and retirees express their need for safety, their secret fears of a more ethnically diverse America, and their desire to recapture the close-knit, picket-fenced communities of their childhood. Ironically, she shows, gated neighborhoods are in fact no safer than other suburbs, and many who move there are disheartened by the insularity and restrictive rules of the community.
Low probes the hopes, dreams, and fears of her subjects to portray the subtle change in American middle-class values marked by the emergence of enclosed communities in the suburbs.
Behind the Gates is Low's revealing account of what life is like inside these suburban fortresses. After years researching and interviewing families in Long Island, New York and San Antonio, Texas, Low provides an inside view of gated communities to help explain why people flee to these enclaves. Parents with children, young married couples, "empty-nesters," and retirees express their need for safety, their secret fears of a more ethnically diverse America, and their desire to recapture the close-knit, picket-fenced communities of their childhood. Ironically, she shows, gated neighborhoods are in fact no safer than other suburbs, and many who move there are disheartened by the insularity and restrictive rules of the community.
Low probes the hopes, dreams, and fears of her subjects to portray the subtle change in American middle-class values marked by the emergence of enclosed communities in the suburbs.
Reviews / Votes
"Provocative and disturbing, this much-needed book holds up an unsparing mirror to an unsettling sign of our times." -- The New York Times"In an engaging, first person narrative, Setha Low takes us inside gated communities throughout the United States and brings us face-to-face with the people and paranoia that reside there. This innovative ethnography reveals how fear of crime and of people of color have distorted the American dream." -- Barry Glassner, author of TheCulture of Fear
"A useful document and, in many of its conclusions, a sensible one." -- The Washington Post
"Low's interviews leave little room for doubt that those who live in gated communities do so because they want to get away from certain types of people, whether criminals or members of other classes or races. She gives a good background sketch of the ways that these communities are simply an outgrowth of centuries-old forms of social controls and class separation." -- The Washington Monthly
"[Low] combines field observations, interviews with residents, and personal reflection to create an unusual combination of academic research and creative nonfiction." -- Library Journal
"In recent years, millions of Americans have moved into gated residential communities. Setha Low's wonderful book carries the reader past the guards to assess private communities through vivid interviews that reveal residents' intense hopes and fears. Low explores the social and spatial costs of everyday life Behind the Gates in a beautifully-written, accessible book of wide appeal for general readers as well as specialists in space and design." -- Dolores Hayden, author of Redesigning the American Dream: Gender, Housing, andFamily Life
"Setha Low's Behind the Gates adds depth and a new dimension to our understanding of who lives in the new Fortressed America. She looks at the people who inhabit these privatized communities with powerful analysis and good writing. Her book reveals gated community residents through a very clear lens that shows their real hopes, fears and foolishness." -- Edward J. Blakely, co-author of Fortress America
"Setha Low takes a creative approach to the fortified mentality and the inhabitants of fastest growing communities in America. Through interviews with residents on both coasts and an exploration of her own family's sense of 'home', she helps us understand the urge for safety and security. The book is original and important; spatial memories, as well as race, class and ethnic choices and prejudices are subtly explored from both the outside and insider perspective." -- Rosalyn Baxandall, co-author of Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened
Annotated
"." -- Journal of Economic Literature
"Behind The Gates: Life, Security, And The Pursuit ofHapiness In Fortress America is an impressive andscholarly study of the gated communities phenomena... Afascinating social study, and very highly recommendedreading for any one seriously concerned about the trendtoward gated communities... [it] is a welcome and orginalcontribution to American Urban Studies referencecollections and supplemental reading lists." -- WisconsinBookwatch
"Now with the recent publication of Setha Low's Behind the Gates, we have an ethnography that focuses on the psychology of the residents themselves... In following the vogue for multi-sited ethnography, Low forsakes the detailed "thick" description of a single setting for a range of different locations: some on New York's Long Island, several others near San Antonio, Texas, and one in Mexico City. This choice turns out to be fruitful. Whatever profundity she loses from a close residential study of a bounded community is outweighed by the insights about regional difference that her research uncovers."
-- Andrew Ross, Harvard Design Magazine
"This book's combination of style, scholarship, and significance commands attention from the academic and civic communities." -- Bruce Frankel, Ball State University, Indina Magazine of History "Provocative and disturbing, this much-needed book holds up an unsparing mirror to an unsettling sign of our times." - The New York Times
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
File size
6,20 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-135-94530-5 (9781135945305)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
08/2004
1st Edition
Routledge
€77.20
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
04/2003
1st Edition
Routledge
€262.40
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Setha Low is Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author or editor of numerous books, including Theorizingthe City: The New Urban Anthropology Reader; Housing,Culture, and Design; Cultural Spaces; and PlaceAttachment.
Content
Preface Prologue 1. Arriving at the Gates 2. Protecting the Children 3. Recreating the Past 4. Searching for the Perfect Community 5. Urban Fear 6. Retirement and Taxes 7. Leaving the Gates Behind 8. Unlocking the Gated Community Bibliography Appendix: Residential History Interview Schedule
